St. Paul Public Schools will move ahead with its plan to give an iPad to each student after the school board voted 5-2 to approve a six-year leasing deal with Apple on Tuesday night.

The largest deployment of devices by a Minnesota school district, the St. Paul initiative stands out for its aggressive timeline and an uncommon move to include pre-kindergarten students.

In the first year, 37 schools will receive the tablets at a cost of about $5.7 million. Later, with devices at more than 60 schools, the lease will cost an estimated $8 million a year.

Some parents and board members said they still don't feel the district has spelled out a solid plan with clear goals and allowed enough time to prepare schools.

With its initiative, St.

Paul follows districts that have credited education technology with promising academic gains -- and many that have stumbled at the start of ambitious rollouts.

St. Paul district leaders said they feel a sense of urgency in handing out devices that they predict will make learning more engaging, hands-on and tailored to the needs of students on their own digital turf.

"Our students are millennials who have tremendous digital fluency, and we must tap into that," said Kate Wilcox-Harris, the assistant superintendent for personalized learning.

Superintendent Valeria Silva said she had considered a more gradual rollout but worried about pushback from schools that would face a longer wait for devices.

Advertisement

Board members Louise Seeba and John Brodrick voted against the agreement.

The board also approved the district's $694.4 million budget for the 2014-15 school year. Overall direct allocations to schools increased slightly.

After several years of boosting the money that goes directly into school budgets, the district saw at least modest per-pupil decreases at more than 20 schools.

The iPad initiative represents a change of direction two years after St. Paul taxpayers approved a $9 million a year local levy increase for the district's Personalized Learning Through Technology plan.

At first, a key piece of the plan was a custom-designed online system that could be used by students, teachers and parents. But the district this month said it had scrapped the troubled project and was focusing instead on providing devices to all students.

From October through January, the district plans to distribute about 28,000 new iPad Mini or Air tablets to students and 1,400 Apple laptops for teachers.

When the rollout is complete the following year, the district will have handed out 40,500 student iPads. Children in grade five and higher will take the devices home -- an opportunity to extend learning beyond the school day, officials said.

The leasing deal includes insurance for the devices, some professional development and technical support. Apple will replace the devices every three years.

The district has cited Apple's track record in working with districts to explain why the district chose iPads over other devices.

Some questions remain: The district will flesh out a plan to deploy the devices and harness them for learning over the summer, with more details coming in August.

It will use referendum dollars to fund the leasing deal next year but will have to tap other resources as well after that. It has not yet said publicly which schools will get the devices first, except to say that those with wider achievement gaps will get priority.

District officials stressed that teachers have been trying iPads in classrooms across the district and that their feedback has been used to create the plan.

At the meeting Tuesday, some students, parents and teachers spoke in support of the initiative.

Harriett Herndon, for example, the parent of a student with autism who cannot speak, described her son having some of his first conversations with an app that allows him to choose from pre-recorded statements.

Sinead O'Duffy, a student at Como Park High School, spoke about downloading an app on her iPad that helped her brush up on her knowledge of French before an overseas trip.

"If iPads are readily available for school, it will open many doors for many people," she said.

The district has been criticized for not clearly spelling out how it will use the devices to boost achievement and how it will measure progress.

Tom Goldstein, a former board member, said he doesn't think the district articulated a clear vision of using the iPads to close achievement gaps.

"My concern is we'll be spending a lot of money without the framework and guidelines we need," he said. "It's a big gamble."

Parent Marianne Milligan said she sees the benefits of personalizing learning, but the initiative "feels rushed and imposed on teachers."

Seeba pointed out she learned of the iPad plan less than a month ago, and she balked at supporting a major investment "without a clear implementation plan and strategy."

But fellow board member Anne Carroll argued students and teachers need to have the devices in their hands to learn as they go along.

District officials pledged much technical support and training. Year 1 teachers will receive devices in August so they have time to get comfortable with them. Officials described a system that will allow educators to control the websites students can access and discourage theft by disabling stolen devices.

Experts emphasize the importance of planning and extensive training for the success of such initiatives.

Julie Carter, a former Minnetonka technology director who now consults with districts nationally, said a closely monitored pilot project as well as some training and buy-in from teachers should come before a long-term deal with a device vendor.

"We have seen so many such programs fail," she said. "I strongly believe you have to go slow to go fast."

Minnetonka, which has received national recognition for its initiative, has handed out devices two grades at a time over the past four years and provided devices to teachers a year before their students get them.

But Michael Dronen, the technology director in Minnetonka, who addressed the board, suggested districts like St. Paul can now speed up their initiatives because they are building on other districts' experiences. IPads, he said, are "a proven solution that's made great differences for students."